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Content marketing offers health care marketers a direct approach to communication that customers will actively seek out and share, writes Peter Houston, former group content director for Advanstar Pharma Science. "Pharma's content-marketing opportunity is to make sure that when a doctor or a patient goes searching for health information ... the right content is there waiting for them," Houston writes. But health care marketers may be too preoccupied with risk to take advantage of the opportunity, says Dr. Candice O'Sullivan of Wellmark.

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Researchers in the U.K. are enlisting eighth-graders to teach their peers about disease prevention and the perils of antibiotic overuse, with the hope that children will spread the message to their parents. A pilot program received positive feedback, and researchers hope to implement a national campaign next September. "I think educating the parents through the children is novel and interesting -- and it may actually work," said Dr. Sandra Arnold, a researcher in Tennessee in pediatric infectious diseases who is not involved with the campaign.

France's antitrust regulator fined drugmaker Sanofi $52.8 million for casting doubt with doctors and pharmacists about the safety and efficacy of generic versions of the blood-thinner Plavix. Regulators say Sanofi urged doctors to require prescriptions for the branded drug be dispensed as written and tried to persuade pharmacists to use Sanofi's generic version instead of others.

Sponsored content done right is great content; done wrong, it's just another advertorial, writes David Tokheim, senior vice president of media solutions at SAY Media. Tokheim suggests finding the people whom other people follow, creating a complete experience that generates buzz and always putting quality first. He also suggests being transparent and working with partners who understand the content's point of view.

AstraZeneca's asthma-awareness campaign encourages asthma patients to talk with their health care providers about triggers, symptoms, optimal lung function and ways to control the disease. Some 25 million Americans have the condition.

Drugmakers have remained uncomfortable with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but Google+ might give marketers the ability to control the environment for engaging health care providers and patients, writes Peter Houston with Advanstar Communications Pharma/Science Group. Though Google+ has only about 10 million users, 20 million more people visited Google sites in May than visited Facebook sites, and Google generally seems more willing to work within drugmakers' regulatory constraints.